Yes, I attended the gigantic (200,000+ people) rally on the Washington Mall on Saturday.  It was a blast.  A lot of fun.  Very well directed and performed, with a bit of political sincerity thrown in at the end.  It would have been a perfect day, had it not been for a horrendous failure of the DC Metro (we languished in one subway station for two hours…).  But even that did not take the shine off of an otherwise great event.

So, what to say about it all?  The main theme of the event brought this passage from Confucius to mind:

The Master said: "A righteous villager is the thief of Integrity." (17.12)

Menicus picks up this line and explicates it (14.37 or 7B.37):

"All that grand boasting of the impetuous is senseless," replied Mencius, "Their words ignore their actions; their actions ignore their words.  And still they bluster about The ancients! The ancients…"

In other words, the "righteous villagers" are self-appointed paragons of virtue, making a big deal out of their supposed moral superiority but who, at the end of the day, fail to live up to their own standards.  They are quick to embrace language that condemns others while smugly maintaining their righteousness.  Holier than thou, they hold forth on cable television and on the campaign trail berating those who would disagree. Yet, ultimately, they are simply impetuously insincere.

To my mind, it is precisely the "righteous villagers," whom Stewart and Colbert were targeting with their humor and their satire.

It is true that for most of the people at the rally, the most egregious "righteous villagers" are those on the right: Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O"Reilly and the like.  Stewart and Colbert were more even-handed, pointing to overblown rhetoric on the left, and that is fine.  But right wing bombast these days is extraordinarily pernicious.  The Obama is a Muslim-African-Socialist-Hitler-Fascist rants have produced an extremely toxic political atmosphere.   And that is what the vast majority of the massive crowd was resisting.  And having a fun time doing it, too.

My favorite moments?  The Cat Stevens (Yusef Islam) v. Ozzy Osbourne smack down, resolved by the always affable OJs, was great.  As was the entrance of Kareem Abdul Jabbar, towering over the scene.  John Legend sounded a lot like Gil Scot Heron, at least to this seventies denizen.  But it was the overall effect, the high production and performance values, and the creativity and positive energy of the very large crowd that made for a marvelous day.  It all brought back a fond sense of "Yes we can."

But let's end with Mencius's final words on how the noble-minded should react when confronted with righteous villagers:

"The noble-minded simply return to the changeless principle.  When the changeless principle is established, the people flourish.  And when the people flourish, the twisty ways of evil are unknown."

Yes we can.

UPDATE: A philosophically informed reader (thanks Stephen!) has pointed out that I have misquoted Mencius above.  The passage I directly quote above from 14.37 (7B.37) is actually a satirical (if that is the right characterization) refererence to what the "righteous villagers" say about Confucians!  Indeed there is a detailed discussion of this passage over at Warp, Weft and Way.  Mencius's summary of the villagers themselves, in the Legge translation, runs something like this:

‘If you would blame them, you find nothing to allege. If you would criticise them, you have nothing to criticise. They agree with the current customs. They consent with an impure age. Their principles have a semblance of right-heartedness and truth. Their conduct has a semblance of disinterestedness and purity. All men are pleased with them, and they think themselves right, so that it is impossible to proceed with them to the principles of Yao and Shun.

Mencius seems them, basically, as hypocrites.  So, the general point above stands, but I will be more careful in how I use the texts in the future.  Thanks goodness for thoughtful readers who can quickly correct rushed bloggers!